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Poker Face

Lauren Barnholdt’s book Aces Up is the book that I just finished, and clearly, it has something to do with poker. Before I give you my opinion, here’s the description from Barnholdt’s website:

Seventeen-year-old high school senior Shannon Card needs money. And lots of it. She’s been admitted to Wellesley, but her dad just lost his job, and somehow she has to come up with a year of tuition herself. But Shannon’s dream of making big bucks waitressing at the local casino, the Collosio, disappears faster than a gambler’s lucky streak. Her boss is a tyrant, her coworker is nuts, and her chances of balancing a tray full of drinks while wearing high-heeled shoes are slim to none. Worse, time is running out, and Shannon hasn’t made even half the money she’d hoped.
When Shannon receives a mysterious invitation to join Aces Up, a secret network of highly talented college poker players, at first she thinks No way. She has enough to worry about: keeping her job, winning the coveted math scholarship at school, and tutoring her secret crush, Max. But when Shannon musters up the nerve to kiss Max and he doesn’t react at all, the allure of Aces Up and its sexy eighteen-year-old leader, Cole, is suddenly too powerful to ignore.
Soon Shannon’s caught up in a web of lies and deceit that makes worrying about tuition money or a high school crush seem like kid stuff. Still, when the money’s this good, is the fear of getting caught reason enough to fold?

Going into this book, I thought it would be a lot better than it was. There really wasn’t a lot of substance to this book – Shannon was shallow and stupid, especially for a high school senior. However, I think that there was an element to Barnholdt’s writing that made me want to see what happened with the romance and the conflict. The ending was also very clever and wrapped it up neatly. However, I don’t think that I’d read another one of her books without a recommendation. So if you do, let me know!